Up a creek without a paddle? That's what happened to suspected mail thief

SAMMAMISH -- A Good Samaritan on a kayak helped sheriff's deputies catch a suspected mail thief who had stolen a kayak but forgot to grab a paddle and was trying to flee across water by paddling with his hands, the King County Sheriff's Office said.

Deputies received multiple calls around 7:30 a.m. Christmas Eve that a man in his 30s and a woman in her 20s were going through mailboxes around the town of Sammamish.

While deputies were en route to the scene, Good Samaritans located the suspects' car -- allegedly filled with mail -- in the 2900 block of 204th Avenue SE, deputies said. Witnesses used their vehicles to box the car in, but the suspects fled on foot, deputies said.

Deputies set up a perimeter around the block and arrested the female suspect without incident. However, the male suspect managed to grab a kayak from a nearby yard and hop into an unnamed neighborhood pond.

The man trying to paddle away was spotted by a resident who grabbed his own kayak and caught up to the suspected thief.

"The male suspect didn't make it very far on the water as he was only using his hands to paddle," the King County Sheriff's Office said.

The Good Samaritan convinced the suspect to return to shore. He was arrested, deputies said, and booked into jail for suspicion of vehicle theft and mail theft.

Sammamish police and the U.S. Postal Service are investigating the incident.